This Film is NOT a Future Release. The Following Preview has been Archived.March 12th, 2007: Shoot 'Em Up is about the near homeless Mr. Smith (Clive Owen), who during a gun battle with unknown men, saves a baby mid-delivery. The mother is shot in the head, leaving the infant all alone in the hands of Smith. Thinking the assassins were after the mother, he soon discovers that the baby is the actual target. As a result, Smith takes the newborn to a prostitute (Monica Bellucci) forming a makeshift family while on the constant run and under fire. Unless Smith uncovers the reason why the baby is being chased; his, the prostitute's and the child's lives are in grave danger.

What to Expect: The film is described as a gritty, fast-paced action thriller which will attempt to attract the audience with all the violence and action sequences. This is the kind of simple story that should be rejected and never see the light of day, unless you have a director, whose go-getter attitude and excitement is difficult to ignore. After studios passed on the movie concept, director Michael Davis put together a 17 minute reel of animated footage, consisting of 17,000 line drawings, giving the studio heads an idea of how the action scenes will play out. This got the attention of New Line CEO, Bob Shaye, who approved the project and accepted Davis as the man to helm this film.

The idea is said to be based on Jon Woo's 1992 Hard Boiled, which stars Chow Yun-Fat and is about a “tough as nails” cop, who teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew. The film is nothing more than a gun fight at its core, and even involves a scene in a hospital where Chow is holding a baby in one hand and a shotgun in the other, blasting his way out.

Davis, aware of Woo's work, added a cover insert to his animated reel that stated "It's John Woo's Wet Dream," referring to Hard Boiled, and obviously stating that his film will put it to shame.

While testing the movie, the studio has screened it at several places with an overall audience response that it is nothing more than a big shoot-out; there are even no explosions or hand-to-hand combat. The baby is born during a shoot-out; there is sex during a shoot-out, a phone conversation during a shoot-out, skydiving during a shoot-out, a car chase during a shoot-out. You get the picture. While many people do not see anything wrong with this, the problem is that the script started off with the shoot-outs and then had a plot thrown into it, and not the other way around. As a result, you get nameless killers chasing an innocent baby without a reason.

The actors that were cast in the film could be what saves this project. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, in a sort of James Bond role. Back in 2004, Owen was up for the role of the secret agent, with even Pierce Brosnan backing him, but eventually the producers went in a different direction, casting Daniel Craig. So Shoot 'Em Up will be Owen's chance to show what kind of Bond he would have been. In fact, during a car chase two thirds of the way through the film, the James Bond theme song is played, and will likely get a reaction from the audience.

Joining Owen is the beautiful Monica Bellucci, who made her mark in The Matrix Reloaded, forever engraving her physique into the minds of many movie-goers. In Shoot 'Em Up she plays a prostitute named DQ ( Dairy Queen) that services men with a lactation/mommy fetish. To please the fans, she is involved in a wild sex scene, similar to Crank's car chase/oral sex sequence. In the film, Bellucci is in complete ecstasy, so much so that she ignores what goes on around her, as Owen is yet again in the middle of a gun fight, unloading clip after clip next to her head. Since the movie is rated R, Bellucci is shown nude, but only for a short while.

Finally, Oscar nominated actor Paul Giamatti is cast as Mr. Hertz, the leader of professional assassins, whose reason for killing the baby is a mystery throughout the film. Nearing the end, we finally learn of his evil plan, when he quickly explains absolutely everything, in a nice neat package.

***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD***

Even though Giamatti's character appears to be nothing more than the leader of paid killers, it turns out that he has a personal interest in killing the baby, Mr. Smith and DQ.

***END OF SPOILERS***

To complete this overall project, director Michael Davis made sure to throw in enough sight gags to keep the audience fully entertained all the way through. In one scene, after killing a few guys on a rooftop, Owen shoots out several letters from a sign that reads "FAULK TRUCK AND TOOL," leaving only "FUK U TOO." This is quickly followed by Giamatti responding with his own gag, which is just as cheesy, but is likely get a laugh.

In Conclusion: The film is a combination of everything that will sell tickets. It has violence, sex, humor, a simple plot, great cast and a run time of only 90 minutes. Trailers basically make themselves with this kind of material, and marketing becomes a snap. Unfortunately, this film will bore many movie-goers with its lack of plot and constant gun-fights, but even though the film is rated R, there are still enough Owen, Bellucci and Giamatti fans that will make sure that Shoot 'Em Up is a success.